Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Noted
• As we asked out front, have you been answering our Question of the Week? Well, make sure to check out this week’s as there’s something extra attached. (Brent Frankenhoff)
Yesterday’s Panel Quiz Answer
Dick Tracy’s first line in comics was, “Good evening, Mr. Trueheart — how’s the delicatessen business this evening?” He said it in the first installment of his self-titled strip, Oct. 12, 1931.
Today’s Panel Quiz
Whose first line in comics was “It’s easy for me to grow to great size! I merely will my body’s atoms to expand!”?
Born Today
George Tuska (1916), comics artist
Kerry Gammill (1954), comics artist
Brad Foster (1955), comics artist
Birthdays 2 Weeks from Now
Vincent T. Hamlin (1901), comics strip writer and artist, Alley Oop creator
Alex Schomburg (1905), comics artist
Murray R. Ward (1951), comics writer and editor
Today’s Flashbacks
95 yrs Apr 26, 1916 Comic-book and comic-strip artist George Tuska is born. His comics career begins in 1939, and he goes on to work on Fawcett’s Captain Marvel titles, Eisner Studio’s Spirit stories, a wide variety of Marvel tales, and The World’s Greatest Superheroes comic strip.
20 yrs April 26, 1991 CBG releases its state of the industry analysis: A conservative figure for annual retail sales for the field is $475 million. Marvel’s paid circulation per year is about 105 million. The average price of a comic book is $1.60, and the cost of buying one of every new color and black-and-white comic book being published is about $1,485 per month.
10 yrs Apr 26, 2001 Cartoonist Henry Boltinoff dies at the age of 87. While he’s best known to the general public for his strip Hocus-Focus, comic-book fans know him for such short cartoon strips as “Super-Turtle,” “Private Pete,” and “Casey the Cop” (below), which appeared at DC, where his brother Murray was a longtime editor. He also wrote for such DC titles as Leave It to Binky and Swing with Scooter.
Every Wednesday and Saturday. California: City of Industry. Comic Book & Collectible Show.
April 29-May 1 California: Anaheim. Comic Con.
April 29-May 1 Louisiana: Lake Charles. BayouCon.
April 29-May 1 North Carolina: Lumbeton. Sports Card, Comic Book and Collectibles Show.
April 30 Delaware: Bethany Beach. Sports Card, Comic Book & Collectible Show.
April 30 Kansas: Kansas City-Overland Park. Comics convention.
April 30 New York: Ithaca. Ithacon.
April 30-May 1 Massachusetts: Boston. Comic Con.
April 30-May 1 North Carolina: Charlotte. Toy -Hobby & Sportscard Show.
April 30-May 1 Pennsylvania: Reading. Super Show.
April 30-May 1 South Carolina: Columbia. Fandomfest Columbia.
May 1 Connecticut: New Haven. New Haven Comic and Collectibles Spectacular.
May 1 Florida: Daytona Beach. Daytona Beach Comic & Toy Show.
May 1 Indiana: Indianapolis. Comic Book Show.
May 1 Nebraska: Omaha. Comics show.
May 1 New Jersey: Wayne. Comic, Toy & Collectible Show.
May 1 Pennsylvania: Essington-Philadelphia. Comic Con.
Do you have a show coming up? Let us know! You can e-mail the information to showscalendar@krause.com or mail it to Show Calendars, Comics Buyer’s Guide, 700 E. State St., Iola, WI 54945. If you have a creator appearance scheduled, let us know by e-mail to brent.frankenhoff@fwmedia.com.
Question of the Week
If you had only $25 to spend on comics this week (whether that’s more or less than you usually spend), what would you buy?
Note: The best answer received (in our opinion) to this question will receive a prize. What’s the prize, you ask? Follow along daily and see!
Comics-Related Media
• OK, pop-culture nerds who are so geeky they follow Old Time Radio: Today at 5 p.m. E.T. Turner Classic Movies airs a comedy fantasy that Jack Benny used as a running gag for years: The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945, 78 mins.). The gag was that the movie, which starred Benny dreaming of himself as an angel assigned to blow the “last trumpet,” was a box-office disaster. (Note: The movie is actually entertaining.)
The Magazine
TONY’S BLOGGY THING is kind of sort of back today:
http://www.comicscommunity.com/boards/tony/?read=239797
Tony
Comics historian Bill Blackbeard died March 10. A full obituary is available here.